


until we meet again

by fiveyaaas



Series: In Another Life [10]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: (very lightly mentioned), Abusive Reginald Hargreeves, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Blood, Complicated Relationships, Cunnilingus, Dom/sub Undertones, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gift Fic, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Oral Sex, Scratching, Whump, doesn’t go into detail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:29:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28764096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas
Summary: At eight years old, they’d been best friends.She had spent a summer in his home, for reasons still unknown to him. His father had been an eccentric man, and he’d never elaborated on why he’d had the Sokolovs at his mansion that summer. Vanya and him had played hide and seek for hours at a time, closing themselves within cupboards that he didn’t know the purpose of, ducking under one of the many unnecessary tables, crawling into one of the many closets. Every time he found her, she looked bewildered, like she’d never imagined anybody living like he did.At the time, he’d thought she’d seen it as a good thing.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Series: In Another Life [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1868005
Comments: 3
Kudos: 35





	until we meet again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Luz_Floral](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luz_Floral/gifts).



> This is for Luz_Floral, who did a writing/art exchange with me!!!! I love how positive and kind and encouraging they are, and I always smile when I see their name pop up on the discord lol!!!! Their art is truly stunning, and I love their style a lot. I am so thankful to have them as a friend!!!!

At eight years old, they’d been best friends. 

She had spent a summer in his home, for reasons still unknown to him. His father had been an eccentric man, and he’d never elaborated on why he’d had the Sokolovs at his mansion that summer. Vanya and him had played hide and seek for hours at a time, closing themselves within cupboards that he didn’t know the purpose of, ducking under one of the many unnecessary tables, crawling into one of the many closets. Every time he found her, she looked bewildered, like she’d never imagined anybody living like he did.

At the time, he’d thought she’d seen it as a good thing. Later, he could realize that she’d thought of it all as a little excessive. He didn’t very much appreciate any of it, either, even though he still layered himself in suits with exorbitant price tags and threw money at every problem he had. ~~Just like Father would.~~

Five wasn’t sure why she left the first time. As quickly as she’d come into his life, she was suddenly gone. He remembered searching around for Vanya, asking his nanny where she’d gone, and she’d looked confused, like the girl had never existed at all. ~~Maybe it had all been in his head. He’d gotten very sick when he was young too, but he’d always thought it was at a different time than that. Perhaps she’d just been the result of loneliness, a friend he’d created through his imagination who’d chosen not to say when his father had taken all of that imagination away.~~

Then, years later, when they’d been seventeen years old, she’d come back into his life again. Five was happy for it, convinced that with each passing year he became just the slightest bit colder. Father had torn him apart until he was just a pile of clay for his own creation, and Five feared that he’d created a monster. ~~Or worse, Reginald had made Five become another version of himself.~~

When Vanya had come along, she’d been warm enough to chip away at the frost that had fallen over himself, and he’d fallen for the warmth instead. 

She had been beautiful, when she came to him the second time around. Maybe she’d always been beautiful, though. As a young child, he’d not really thought of her in that context, but she was nearly ethereal by the time he saw her again. Lovely in a way that he could not describe, not seeming like she’d belonged to his world. While Tatiana Sokolov talked to Father, Five grabbed her hand, not really sure what they would do now that they weren’t children anymore. ~~Part of him had still wanted to hide away with her, but he also never wanted either of them to be found again.~~

Seemingly realizing that he had no idea what they would do now, Vanya suggested that they explore the mansion. Five knew everything there was to know about the place, knew every nook and cranny within the walls, but he’d not objected when she’d grabbed onto his arm and dragged him along. 

They wound up in one of the kitchens. Vanya plucked macarons, tartlets, and eclairs off the counter, and Five didn’t protest, even if he knew they were for the party Father would throw to welcome the Sokolovs. When she’d grabbed enough that her arms were overflowing, Five grabbed a tray and set the desserts atop it, and they walked around aimlessly for a while. Once they’d found one of the old places they’d hidden, a small cupboard under one of the staircases, she tugged him inside. 

“It feels more tight in here,” Five remarked, raising his brows at the dusty walls beside him. He was pretty sure he could see a few spiderwebs, but Vanya didn’t seem to mind.

“Your father scares me,” she confessed to him, flicking her eyes in the general direction of where his father was meeting with her family. He grabbed a macaron, picking at it more than eating it. When she started to take the pastry from his hand, he lifted his hand up, not even really sure that he was putting it against her lips until she was dragging her tongue against his fingers. A groan left his throat, and she raised her brows, commenting, “He dislikes me, you know.”

“How do you know that?” Five didn’t try to argue; his father disliked everyone. 

Vanya’s lips were still against his palm as she told him that it was basic intuition. “It doesn’t bother me, though, Five.”

He raised his brows expectantly. There was more she wanted to add, and he wanted to hear it. 

“There’s a way that I know he’ll dislike me even more.”

Five would have laughed if it weren’t for the heady feeling in the air, for the softness of her lips against his fingers. “And what’s that, Vanya?”

She slipped off her clothing, and he pulled her into his arms.

* * *

The ink on the paper bled, obscuring the location of the bar, but he had had the address memorized for a little bit now. He was now CEO of his father’s company, but the decision to come to Russia had nothing to do with business at all. Technically, there was an actual reason for it that didn’t relate to her, at least enough reason that nobody questioned him going to Moscow, but he didn’t precisely care, anyways. With Father dead, he _had_ to see her again. 

It hadn’t taken long at all for him to get her location, just having to pay the right people. Once he knew where she was, he set out to speak to her. She’d been an anchor into a different life, but all he really wanted was to be tied to her until he drowned from this one. 

She was just as beautiful as he remembered, sawing melodies out of her violin, a blissful expression across her features. Five wanted her to be the last thing he ever heard. Vanya was a siren, and he would willingly lose his life to hear her better. 

The song she played peeked at the corners of his mind, and he remembered her playing it for him years ago. He wondered if she could sense his presence, quickly banishing the thought away, knowing it was only a result of having fantasized her since he’d been a teenager. It was likely just a coincidence. 

But then her eyes locked with his own, and he could feel his heart begin to pound, feeling like he was finally coming alive again. It had felt like he’d lived life most of his life underwater, listening to his father berate him for everything he did wrong, eventually forcing a sense of numbness. He had had to develop the ability not to feel alive, or he never would have survived in that home. 

Vanya’s music guided him into something he wanted to resemble again. 

As she stepped off the stage, she caught his eyes, and his breath hitched audibly. Her feet trudged forward, eyes almost incredulous as she took in his appearance, movements quickening when she realized that he was really there. Five opened his arms up, surprised by the movement, only for her to crash into him. He inhaled the familiar scent of her, nearly sobbing at the feeling of her. 

She pulled away, not enough that she was out of his arms but enough that she could tip her chin up, staring at him. Had she always been this small? “I saw that he died. On the news,” she murmured, and he knew that she wouldn’t try to say,  _ ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’  _ Vanya would know that he wouldn’t feel upset about it, and it was precisely why the first thing he’d set out to do after hearing the news was try to find her. 

“I’m glad for it,” he admitted to her, even though she already would have known. There wasn’t any grand confession there; he’d wished for Reginald’s many times, no matter how much the guilt had threatened to encapsulate him. 

She offered a small, shy smile. Vanya had likely felt the same as him, despite not having been his daughter. All it had taken was for her to know him, the version of him that he knew showing the public would keep him from being as successful as he wished. Sometimes, when Five had been young, he’d wondered if he had just imagined how cruel his father had been. The day he’d seen him backhand Vanya at dinner had assured him that he hadn’t made it all up in his mind, but Five had been weak like Reginald had always told him, not running away even after Vanya had left them all behind for good. “I have missed you, Five. When you didn’t speak to me for years, I assumed you’d regretted what we’d done.”

“I would never regret that at all.” He brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. It made sense that she would think that way, he supposed, given that this was the first time he’d ever tried to communicate with her. A wave of guilt washed over him, and he explained, voice gentle, “He prevented me from contacting you.”

“Why did you listen?” Her brown eyes were full of an emotion he couldn’t quite interpret, but he could pretty well figure out. Five wanted to assure her, but he had to be completely honest with her, still. 

He shook his head to her question because he honestly didn’t know. For as long as he could remember, there had been a life predetermined for him, and he wouldn’t have been able to escape it. The excuse felt lame now, and he asked, knowing that he would leave if she said the words but desperately hoping she wouldn’t say them, “Do you not want me to be here, Vanya?”

“I have wanted you here for as long as I can remember,” Vanya told him, and he felt a weight lift from his chest. “I simply wish to confirm that you will never leave me behind again.”

“I could do that.” His voice was light, but she didn’t argue, knowing that he meant it. 

She smiled again, and it was gentler this time. Unforced. He wanted to kiss her, wanted his lips to feel her as her mouth curled in happiness, wanting to swallow it up and share it with her. As her hands gripped his forearms, she told him, “Then let’s get out of here.”

“Are you finished with your shift?” He glanced around the place, eyebrows raised. 

“It doesn’t matter,” she mumbled, tugging her violin up over her shoulder, looking up at him with bright eyes. “I need you now.”

“Where is your home?”

“Nearly half an hour away.”

He shot her a confused glance before mentally deciding to take her to his hotel instead. “Would you mind it if we go to the place I’m staying, V?”

“Not at all.” She squeezed his arm, and they went back to his hotel.

As soon as he closed the door behind them, she tugged him down by his tie, and he made a small noise, backing them to the bed as his mouth pressed to hers. She fell to the bed, gasping against his mouth, and he grunted, caging her against the mattress. 

“I have wanted you,” he huffed out. “Have  _ waited  _ for you, for so many years.”

She blinked away tears, legs wrapping around his waist, breathing, “So take me.”

He didn’t argue, bunching up the fabric of her dress, pushing it up, up, up until it was pulled from her body. Her hair tangled and frizzed up, and Five found it endearing. “You’re so beautiful.”

“Thank you,” she murmured, dragging her fingers through his hair. His eyebrows furrowed, letting her touch him, getting reacquainted to the feeling of her, shocked that she still felt like home. She was the only thing that had  _ ever  _ felt like home to him, though, he supposed. “I missed you, Five.”

“I missed you too.”

She was still his best friend, even if they hadn’t spoken in years. He had to do this right, even if he felt like he was losing control. “Is this okay?” Five asked as he mouthed over the fabric of her bra. 

_ “Yes,”  _ Vanya hissed. 

He mouthed at her collarbone. “Vanya,” he groaned. Then, more insistently,  _ “Vanya.”  _ She whimpered unintelligibly, and he realized that he’d sucked a bruise to her chest, kissing the area gently and guiltily. 

“Take off your shirt,” she commanded, and he followed her order, shrugging off his coat and letting Vanya help him unbutton his shirt. When she saw his bare chest, she dragged her neatly clipped nails along his skin, drawing a line on his torso from in between his pectorals all the way down to his belt buckle. As she glanced back up at him again, he was breathing heavily. Softly, she told him, “You shouldn’t have made me wait so long for you.”

“I’ll never leave your side again,” he promised, and she nodded her assent.

“Good,” she snarked, and he grinned, moving back to her chest, flattening his tongue against her pinkened skin. She was more affected than she was letting on, and it caused another groan to escape his lips, shivering as he scraped his canines along her skin. Vanya made another noise, and he unhooked her bra, feeling his cock straining against his trousers as he saw her pert, dusty pink nipples on display for him. He closed one into his mouth, sucking on it before gliding his tongue along it, causing it to pebble and erect even more. 

The noise she made then was more pain than pleasure, and he flicked his eyes up to her, opening his mouth and pulling away from her tiny breast to ask, “Is this too much?”

She shook her head, “Keep going.”

He didn’t argue, moving to the other breast, lavishing his tongue over it before he popped it into his mouth, opposite of what he’d done before. 

As she knotted her hands into his hair, tugging the strands, he jerked his hips against her, doing it again when he heard the mewl that escaped her mouth until he was just humping against her leg, not really ashamed when she was responding the way she was. His mouth moved to her torso, flicking over her ribcage and navel, leaving bruises down her body until he reached the crest of her thighs, dragging his tongue over her underwear, moaning when he tasted the slick that had seeped through the fabric of her panties. Her fingers were still in his hair, and he didn't stop licking at the fabric until she hissed, “Stop teasing me.”

He slipped off her panties, pulling them off her thighs and tossing them away without much thought, moving his head back between her thighs. He plunged his tongue inside of her soaked cunt, gathering cum into his tongue. She rocked her hips against his face, and Five responded by gripping her small thighs tightly enough that his nails dug into her creamy, porcelain skin, about to stop when he realized he’d drawn blood, but she commanded him not to stop again, and he nodded, guilty brushing his thumbs over the skin as he nosed at her clit. “I’ve wanted you so long,” she moaned. “I need you, Five.  _ Fuck.” _

He dragged his tongue over the bundle of nerves instead, listening to her words become more and more unintelligible until she was just shrieking and grinding brokenly against his face. When she was able to whimper something he interpreted as  _ ‘I’m close,’  _ he didn't stop moving, gently nipping at her swollen clit, causing her to wail and her entire body to go stiff for a few seconds before she relaxed, boneless, against the mattress. 

Chin slick, he glanced up at her, grunting, “You good?”

She nodded. “Take off your pants.”

He raised his brows, realizing that he hadn’t, crawling up to her and tugging at his belt. “I’ve thought about you for years,” he told her. 

“I gathered that,” she quipped, taking his belt off fully. He flinched as he heard the  _ clang  _ against the floor, eyes wide as he stared at her. She unzipped his trousers, palming his erection through his boxers, and he let her touch him for a few moments before gently setting his hand against her own, stopping her. Sounding worried, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I just want to be inside of you,” he told her, and she beamed up at him. After he grabbed his wallet from his pants, he rifled through it, searching for a condom and unclothing himself. “Tell me if you want to stop at all, V.”

“Okay, you too.”

“Of course.” She grabbed the condom from his hand, rolling it over him quickly and climbing on top of him, shoving at his chest until he fell back against the pillows, staring up at her in bewilderment. “You played so beautifully tonight, Vanya. I remember you used to practice when you visited.”

“I’ve always wanted to be a violinist. While I haven’t gotten into a major orchestra yet, I’m still hopeful. The bar lets me play sometimes; they’re trying to make the place more like a  _ lounge.”  _ She rolled her eyes. “They want to make it classy, so they can charge more for drinks.”

He chuckled, setting his hands against her hips. “Do you think you’d have more opportunities in America?”

“Are you trying to get me to move?” Her eyes danced with amusement. “A little forward, don’t you think?”

Heat pooled over his cheeks. “I didn’t mean it like that-”

“Didn’t you?”

“I… yeah,” he said sheepishly. 

“We’ll talk about that later.” She didn’t sound concerned about it, sounding as confident as she had when they were seventeen years old. “Is that okay?”

“Yes,” he hastened to say, hoping that she would tell him after they were done that she wanted to be with him. He didn’t want to lose her again, and he knew at any moment he could if he did the wrong thing. It scared him. She’d been the only thing he’d ever wanted, and he finally had a chance to be somebody else, somebody that wasn’t a result of what Reginald had created. When he was with her, he imagined the person that he could have been, the person that he really wanted to be. “Take as much time as you need, Vanya.” 

She laughed. “Tomorrow, okay?”

He nodded, and she kissed him, hips rolling and reminding him of his purpose in bringing her to this hotel. When he flipped them over, hands closing around her wrists and holding her down, he confirmed, “Tomorrow.”

“He can’t take me away from you again,” Five mumbled, pressing his lips to her throat as he guided himself to her entrance. Her eyes rolled back, biting her lips as he pushed inside of her, moving inch by inch until he bottomed out, tipping her chin up and catching her mouth with his own. He swallowed the moan she emitted, promising, “I won’t leave you behind, Vanya.”

“I know you won’t,” she assured, nails dragging over his back, scraping his skin and keeping him grounded, keeping himself from losing control at the feeling of her tight around his cock. “I wouldn’t allow it.”

She likely expected him to laugh, but his voice held no humor when he told her, “I’m glad.”

Her eyes filled with something much softer than before, and he could feel as the coldness started drifting away in her presence, rocking his hips forward. When she asked him to go faster, he listened, pulling out and roughly shoving back inside of her. Neither of them spoke much after that, the only noises coming from the sounds of their bodies moving together and the small whines she let out. He reached between her legs, to ensure that she would keep making them. She was pliant in his arms, eyes glazed over in pleasure. As her arms started to go a little slack around him, he muttered that he had her, gentling his movements, realizing she was starting to tire out.

Thumbing at her clit, he continued to assure her, groaning as she clenched more fully around him, telling him that she was coming, sounding even more incoherent than when she’d said it before. His pace quickened, chasing his own release, only stopping when he spilled into the condom, collapsing on top of her. 

When she made a small noise, he pulled out of her fully, wrapping an arm around her torso and pressing his chin to the top of her head, letting her catch her breath. The silence was comfortable, and he felt his eyelids begin to droop. 

“You promise you won’t leave?” she murmured, sounding less confident than she had before. “Because last time—”

“Was different.”

She craned her head back, “How?”

“You know what my father was like, Vanya.”

Vanya shrugged, acquiescing as he knew she would. Not many people had known his father outside of the way he acted in public, his personality heavily altered to be more digestible. The Sokolovs had been treated roughly the same as he had all his life, though, so Vanya knew who Reginald had been outside of what publicists tailored him to be. “But you could have stopped working for him. You’re  _ still  _ working for his company, aren’t you?”

“I would quit,” Five offered, willing to do anything for her. He still had plenty of his inheritance to live off of, and he’d be able to afford college with it as well, allowing to have a career he actually enjoyed. “I’d do that if you asked me to.”

“Wouldn’t you resent me for that?”

“I would be  _ happy  _ to do it. Vanya, I do not  _ want  _ to be my father. He was callous, cruel, and abusive. That is not the person I ever want to be, and I hope you know that.”

“Why did you choose to work with him all these years, then?”

He furrowed his brows. Truly, he didn’t have an answer for her, though he supposed a lot of it had been all of the years that Reginald had suggested he  _ couldn’t  _ be anything else. Those thoughts hadn’t left him since his father had died, but they were less insistent now. They weren’t controlling what he wanted out of life anymore, and he felt like he could breathe for the first time in all of his life. “I didn’t think that I could ever be anything else than what he wanted from me.”

“And now?”

“It doesn’t really matter, does it? He’s not here to tell me what I have to be.”

“Don’t you worry that you’re only thinking this way because he just died and this is some sort of response to grieving?”

“I do not mourn for my father, Vanya. Even if there are people who’d never met him before that are grieving him publicly, I knew the person that he was.  _ You  _ knew the person he was.”

Her eyes softened, “You’re certain about this, then?”

“More certain than I’ve been about anything in my life.”

She pulled the covers off of them, climbing off the bed. Confused, he asked, “Where are you going?”

“To take a shower. Come with me?”

He nodded, following her to the bathroom. She started the process of drawing a bath.

“If I move in with you, we’d have to agree that this is permanent. I’d be moving to a different country, and I would want the same commitment from you, Five.”

“Of course. Whatever you want.”

She stepped into the half-full tub, and he followed her, pulling her to his chest and setting his head back drowsily. “Was coming here the first thing you did after he died?” Vanya asked, tipping her head back in an attempt to better see him, probably wanting to see if he would bother lying to her. 

He didn’t. “Yes.”

A small laugh left her lips. “Sounds about right.”

* * *

They stayed in Russia a few more weeks after that, allowing Vanya to get all of her affairs in order. He would have stayed there if she had wanted, gotten out of the company and used his inheritance to build them a home. Five had offered, but she’d waved him off, telling him that she was fine with him taking her back to visit with a wry smile. When she’d confirmed that she was okay with moving to the states, he called his lawyer, having the woman figure out all of the legal aspects of Vanya moving for them. 

Just as they were about to board their plane, to start their new lives together, Vanya slipped her hand into his own, telling him, again, that she’d waited too long for him. And he promised his best friend that he would make it up to her. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!! 💕


End file.
